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... who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours. This is a serious issue with these drugs. In general, I won't go to the doctor in that time frame. Thi
by Broken_Hippo 8y ago
... who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours.
This is a serious issue with these drugs. In general, I won't go to the doctor in that time frame. This is especially the case if one gets symptoms on a friday afternoon - the doctors do not open until Monday. By the time I decide I*m sick enough to visit the doctor, I've already passed the time frame (Exceptions apply, of course). And I know I'm not the only one.
To me, this is a major downfall of such remedies. This could seriously make a difference in the way the flu spreads, but for that to really happen, we need more ways to get seen by doctors or nurse practitioners. We should encourage folks to see the doctor for "little" things. We need to make sure everyone can get seen. We probably need to make sure folks in service industries get seen immediately and won't lose their jobs over such things. This is mostly because service industry workers can spread these to a wide population easily without controls.
- emiliobumachar 8y agoMostly agree. But, can even a good doctor diagnose influenza at an early stage, with enough confidence to be worth the odd false positive? Or are the symptoms too much like too much else?
- Broken_Hippo 8y agoI think this can be solved. Seriously, we have nurse practitioners at pharmacies that can test for strep throat and treat that: I see no reason why we can't have something similar for influenza. Ideally, I think it would work best if we had a care level that was between normal doctor and urgent care that was open 24 hours a day. It'd mostly be to treat things like this. But until then, surely we can simply do tests for everyone.
- ChrisRR 8y agoJust because this may not help you, doesn't mean it may not help more at-risk people who may show signs much sooner, such as the elderly, children, people with compromised immune systems, etc. The aim isn't to have one magical drug that works for everyone, but an entire set of tools in your arsenal.
- pavel_lishin 8y agoParents, too - if I think I'm coming down with the flu, and know there's an early timeframe treatment available, I'll absolutely make it a point to see the doctor early.
- icegreentea2 8y agoYeah, I think this stuff is great for when you're living with someone. A few years ago, I got the the flu while visiting home during the holidays. My family took me to the clinic to get some antibiotics to deal with some secondary infections (I also had wisdom teeth stuff going on at the same time lol). I remember the doctor offering tamiflu to my family as prophylaxis, or to come back the moment they felt symptoms for tamiflu.
- Broken_Hippo 8y agoIt isn't that it doesn't help me in particular. And I do understand that it can help at-risk people. I personally think the amazing part of this drug is the decrease in infectious time, and the actual healing being secondary - at least for folks like me. Nevertheless, it will help those folks with risks more if folks like me actually use this stuff too. If people like me take this within the time frame and stop spreading, it is much better. This is what I think we should fix. We should encourage folks like me to use things like this. Not because we are helped so much by the medicine itself, but because it cuts down on transmission. To be able to do that, the problems I mentioned in the original post needs to be addressed.